“ ‘We tell the story of Moses because it is actually our story,’ one teenager, a refugee from Afghanistan by way of Iran, said in the Hazaragi dialect to the German-speaking audience at the Bavarian State Opera,” writes Joshua Barone in Sunday’s (8/12) New York Times. “Others chimed in…. They were the cast of ‘Moses,’ a feel-good yet sobering new production by the Bavarian State Opera’s youth program, written for refugees, children of immigrants and born-and-raised Bavarians. In the opera, a mixture of new music by Benedikt Brachtel and adapted excerpts from Rossini’s ‘Mosè in Egitto,’ the teenagers tell the story of Moses—common ground for followers of the Bible, Torah and Quran—with Brechtian interludes about refugee experiences and current events…. The libretto [is] based on interviews with refugees in the cast…. Audiences have responded favorably…. The heart of ‘Moses’ is how … refugees in the cast have adjusted to life in Munich…. One of the cast members, a Nigerian refugee named Unity Okojie, went missing…. His absence has been written into the show…. The Bavarian State Opera’s youth program will return next season with another refugee-minded adaptation: an Adam and Eve story, based on Haydn’s ‘The Creation.’ ”
Posted August 14, 2018
